What We Have Learned About Heart Disease
24 Feb 2016By Tom Fisher RN, BA
According to the CDC, in 2013 heart disease was the number one killer in the United States, taking 611,105 lives. The standard American diet (SAD) has not prevented heart disease in America. When a diet is too high in sugar, trans fats, oxidized cholesterol, and too low in healthy fats, it is a recipe for heart disease. Added sugars, and processed fructose (fruit sugar) in particular, are a primary driver of heart disease.
Trans fat may promote heart disease to an even greater degree than sugar. Trans fats are in foods such as potato chips and fried food, like French fries. Structurally, trans fats are synthetic fatty acids produced during the hydrogenation process. Trans fats prevent the synthesis of prostacyclin, which is necessary to keep your blood flowing. When your arteries cannot produce prostacyclin, blood clots form, and one’s chances of sudden death greatly increase.
Oxidized cholesterol forms when polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as soybean, corn, and sunflower oils) are heated. This oxidized cholesterol causes increased thromboxane formation, a factor that clots your blood. To help protect your heart, avoid all hydrogenated oils and replace them with healthy fats such as avocados, blue green algae (AFA), hemp, flax, chia, and raw walnuts.
The top six ways to reduce heart disease are:
1. Diet - Organic, raw, ripe, sprouted, phyto-nutrients, and enzymes
Plant sterols, also known as phyto-sterols, constitute mainly beta-sitosterol; however, they differ in function from human sterols like cholesterol. They are poorly absorbed by humans and in the process, appear to block the absorption of dietary cholesterol as well. Thus, they help reduce blood LDL-cholesterol levels.
Dietary-fiber, increase bulk to the food and help to prevent constipation by decreasing gastro-intestinal transit time. In addition, dietary fibers bind to bile salts (produced from cholesterol) and decrease their re-absorption, thus help to lower serum LDL-cholesterol levels in the blood.
According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a diet rich in phytonutrients from fruits and vegetables, along with reduced saturated fat, can substantially lower blood pressure. Authors concluded that such a diet offers an additional nutritional approach to preventing and treating hypertension.[i]
Phytochemicals, such as sulfides and thiols, in foods help decrease the LDL cholesterol, as LDL cholesterol can build up in the arteries when inflammation levels are high in the body. They can be found in aromatic plants such as nutrition-rich onions, leeks, garlic, herbs, as well as olives.
2. Clean environment - (EMF (electromagnetic frequencies and geopathic stress))
If you sleep over a geopathic field, you don’t sleep well. EMF such as (cell-phones, satellites, and smart meters) stresses the body and if you are bombarded with EMF all the time your autonomic system can never go to balance. Seventy percent of healing occurs when you sleep.
Grounding is basically walking on the soil, grass or beach which as no manmade electric wiring in the ground. Grounding to the earth effectively alleviates inflammation because it thins your blood and infuses you with negatively charged ions through the soles of your feet. Some technology, such as MRET (Molecular Resonance Effect Technology) helps to reduce the electromagnetic burden on the body by devices like cell phones and Wi-Fi. MRET devices (like gia wellness) helps to avoid the adverse cell response simply by superimposing an optimal random field or 'noise field' on the bio-effecting electromagnetic field, thus making the resulting field random and the exposure neutral on a biological level.
3. Exercise
Poor diet and heavy metals make the blood thick and reduce oxygen in the body. Exercise supports oxygenating the body and detoxing heavy metals. Blood, urine, and sweat were collected from 20 individuals (10 healthy participants and 10 participants with various health problems) and analyzed for approximately 120 various compounds, including toxic elements. Many toxic elements appeared to be preferentially excreted through sweat. Induced sweating appears to be a potential method for elimination of many toxic elements from the human body.[ii] Exercise also protects against heart disease primarily by normalizing your insulin and leptin levels.
4. Stress
Separate studies showed that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who impulsively vent their anger as well as for those who tend to repress angry feelings.[iii] In a groundbreaking study of 1,200 people at high risk of poor health, those who learned to alter unhealthy mental and emotional attitudes through self-regulation training were more than four times more likely to be alive 13 years later than an equal-sized control group.[iv]
People who have negative expectations for the future also have greater risk for the diseases associated with aging and early death as supported by elevated levels of inflammatory compounds in their bodies compared with people who are optimistic. Optimistic attitudes protect against progression of carotid atherosclerosis in healthy middle-aged women.[v]
5. Essential fatty acids
The following are some of the functions of essential fatty acids:
- Provides structural support for the outer walls or membranes of the body’s cells
- Helps convert the nutrient’s form foods into usable forms of energy
- Assists in cell-to-cell communication
- Assists in manufacturing red blood cells
- Decreases inflammation
- Lowers triglycerides
- Makes blood less sticky
- Raises HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol)
- Decreases arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythm)
- Decreases blood pressure
- Enhances the action of insulin
- Helps protect against oxidation and ischemic heart disease
- Reduces PMS symptoms
- Assists mitochondrial function (energy producing parts of the cells)
Healthy sources of essential fatty acids: Algae oil, hemp oil or seed, flax oil or seed, chia oil or seed, walnuts, avocado, primose oil, and Lifegive Phys Neur Oil.
6. Support Mitochondria (Energy powerhouse of the cell)
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), is a vitamin-like substance that is made naturally in the body and crucial to heart health. However, production declines with age and poor diet, and is significantly impaired by statin drugs. CoQ10 works in the body in the body as an escort. Inside our cells, electrons are extracted from the food we eat to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate). CoQ10 molecules play a central role in that process by shuttling electrons back and forth between enzymes. The second role CoQ10 plays is as a free radicals scavenger. In this antioxidant capacity, CoQ10 helps protect cell membranes and arterial tissue from oxidative stress and inflammatory damage.
L-Carnitine
L-carnitine is a water-soluble compound, which is also produced by the body. L-carnitine’s role in ATP production is also as an escort. It is the only molecule in our cells with the ability to move fatty acids into the mitochondria. This function is critical because the heart obtains 60 percent of its fuel from fat. Carnitine also carries the waste generated by ATP metabolism out of the mitochondria.
Magnesium
All enzymatic reactions involving ATP require magnesium. People get magnesium through their diet. (Leafy green vegetables, almonds, pumpkin seeds, beans, and bananas are all rich in magnesium). Magnesium deficiency is common due to poor diet, emotional and physical stress, and long-term use of diuretics.
D-Ribose
D-ribose is a naturally-occurring sugar derivative of ATP that helps fuel the regeneration of energy when your body cannot create it quickly enough. When the heart is under stress and deprived of oxygen, as it is during heavy exercise, there is a profound depression of ATP. Individuals with ischemia have low levels of ribose, which compromises the heart’s ability to re-synthesize and regenerate ATP.
PQQ – (pyrroloquinoline quinone)
PQQ is a unique B vitamin-like nutrient which aids in cellular energy production and mitochondrial health, to defend the body against oxidative stress. It’s most notable aspect is the fact that it stimulates the spontaneous formation of new mitochondria in the body's aging cells, and also triggers genes governing mitochondrial protection, reproduction, and repair.
[i] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199704173361601
[ii] Arch Environ ContamToxicol.2011 Aug;61(2):344-57. doi: 10.1007/s00244-010-9611-5. Epub2010 Nov 6.
[iii] A. Siegmanet al. J BehavMed. 1998; 21(4) D. Carroll et al. J EpidemiolCommHealth. 1998; Sept.
[iv] R. Grossarth-Maticek& H. Eysenck. BehavRes Ther. 1991; 29(1)
[v] PsychosomMed.2004 Sep-Oct;66(5):640-4; O'Donovan A, Lin J, DhabharFS, et al.
[tblock title="Heart Healthy Recipes:" tag="h2" position="text-center"/]
Green Juice
2 small Cucumbers
4 Stalks celery
½ bunch kale
1 oz. sunflower sprouts
Add garlic and cayenne to taste
Directions: Use auger type juicer to extract juice.
Bell Pepper Soup
2 Red Bell Peppers
¼ C Red onion
¼ C Olive oil
1/8 C. flax oil
1 Tbs. Caraway seed
2 Tbs. Lemon Juice
¼ Tbs. stevia
2 C warm water
1 Tbs. Bragg’s liquid aminos
1 tsp. turmeric
½ tsp. cumin powder
½ tsp. curry powder
¼ C soaked Almonds
1 tsp. oregano
Place all ingredients in a blender and Blend.
Mixed Sprouted Bean Salad
2 C Sprouted Bean Mix
½ C Cucumber, chopped
1 Handful basil, chopped
2 Orange and yellow Bell Peppers, chopped
1 tsp Bragg’s liquid aminos
1-2 T Flax seed oil
½ tsp. cumin seeds
1 Tbs. Za’atar
½ lemon, squeezed
Place all ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix thoroughly. You can eat as a meal over a bed of mixed greens.
Recipes courtesy of: Zainab Fisher – Personal Chef, specializing in raw and vegan food
For information on Zainab services:
Cell: 561-629-0593